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This document is a PAIA Manual published in October 2023 by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), a non-profit law clinic based in Cape Town. The manual outlines the procedures and categories of information available to the public in accordance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA) and the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 (POPIA), ensuring transparency and the exercise of environmental rights.

This document contains the Respondent's Heads of Argument filed by the Centre for Environmental Rights on behalf of the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance (VEJA) in the Supreme Court of Appeal. The case concerns an appeal by ArcelorMittal South Africa Limited (AMSA) against a High Court judgment that ordered AMSA to provide VEJA with environmental records—specifically an Environmental Master Plan for its Vanderbijlpark site and records regarding the closure and rehabilitation of its Vaal Disposal site in Vereeniging—under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA).

This report by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) analyzes the accessibility of environmental information in South Africa through an assessment of 98 PAIA requests and 42 formal requests made to 17 public and 35 private bodies between July 2010 and early 2012. The findings reveal a widespread culture of avoidance, delay, and non-compliance with the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (PAIA), which the CER argues fundamentally hampers the realization of constitutional environmental rights.